Russian
Kettlebell
Workout: Peripheral
Heart Action with Kettlebells
By David
Whitley, RKC
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Russian
Kettlebell
Workout: Peripheral
Heart Action with Kettlebells — PHA stands for Peripheral Heart
Action and is the forerunner of what is commonly called circuit
training today. This isn’t Curves
circuit training either. Former
Mr. America Bob Gajda is generally credited with developing this method in
the late 1960s and many notable strength athletes have used it through the
years to increase endurance and shed fat while maintaining muscle.
John McCallum sang its praises in his Keys
to Progress and Bruce Lee used it to develop his rippling
muscularity. One of the key
differences between this type of training and more conventional cardio is
the resistance. Since the focus
of PHA is resistance training, you will keep your hard-earned strength and
muscle as you improve aerobic conditioning and shed fat.
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PHA training is dramatically different from conventional “body part”
training. As you know, a
typical weight training routine consists of several sets of exercises done
for a particular body part before moving on to the next body part, typically
with rest intervals between the sets. In
PHA, the entire body is trained in such a manner that no localized
“pump” is achieved. The
idea is to provide uninterrupted blood flow throughout the body while taking
no rest in between sets. By
eliminating rest periods, you can see that you will either a) be doing the
same amount of work as a typical workout, but in much less time or b) be
doing three or four times as much work in the same amount of time.
This translates into total body strength and conditioning.
This is the brutal beauty of PHA.
Russian
Kettlebells are especially well suited for PHA training since it is so easy to
transition from one Russian
Kettlebell exercise
to the next without setting the
weight down. The continuous
motion will sufficiently tax the cardiovascular system to build endurance
while the lifting of weights simultaneously stresses the muscles. You are
going to expend a tremendous amount of energy, and that translates into
tremendous conditioning and fat loss. If
you cut back on your calories a bit you’ll be amazed at how quickly you
lean out.
Here
is an example of a Russian
Kettlebell specific PHA program:
Russian Kettlebells Group One
Windmill
5 reps per arm
Renegade
Row 5 reps per arm
Double
Front Squat 5 reps
One-arm
snatch 10 reps per arm
One-arm
Swing 10 reps per arm
Complete three
continuous rounds if you are able, and then move on to the next group of Russian
Kettlebell exercises. If this is too much for your lungs, you may take one-minute
breaks in between each exercise in the beginning and gradually reduce the
amount of rest time between exercises until you reach can perform the entire
group three times without resting. Upon completion, move on to the next
group of Kettlebell
exercise.
Russian
Kettlebells Group Two
Double
Clean and Jerk 5 reps
Double
Bent Row 5 reps per arm
Double
Military Press 5 reps
Slingshot
(pass around body) 10 reps each direction
Two-arm
Swing 10 reps
Another
approach is to do as many as you can in one minute, then move to the next Russian
Kettlebell exercise
rather than going for a set number of repetitions.
If you cannot go for the full minute, do as many as you can in good
form and rest until the top of the next minute. Go through each round 3-4
times with no more than a minute’s rest between Kettlebell
exercise
Here
is how a PHA program might look using Russian
Kettlebells combined with bodyweight
exercises:
Group
One
Double Front Squats
Renegade Row
Pushups on Kettlebells
Burpees
One-arm
snatch
Group Two
Double
Clean and Jerk
Jumping
Jacks
Two-arm
Swing
Hindu
Pushups
Slingshot
To incorporate
PHA into your schedule, you could do the PHA routine on Monday, Wednesday
and Friday. On Tuesday,
Thursday and Saturday, perform some sort of active recovery work.
Good examples include taking a walk, playing basketball, and
swimming; just make sure it's enjoyable and keeps you moving.
As an alternative approach, you can do two days per week of PHA and
two days of pure strength training (e.g. 5x5 or
Power
to the People).
This “half-and-half” approach will work on strength and endurance
with equal emphasis. You
won’t get lean as quickly as doing exclusively PHA, but it will be good
for general conditioning or as a way to transition into PHA from a mass or
strength-focused cycle.
Here are a few tips that will help your progress:
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Before each
Kettlebell
workout, do a
few minutes of joint mobility drills to loosen up.
-
At no point should you go to
muscle failure. If the particular drill calls for 5 reps in a round and
you can’t get that many continuously, it is acceptable to do a set of
three and a set of two or even five singles. Get the prescribed volume and keep working toward
perpetual motion. You will
get there.
-
After you finish the
Kettlebell
workout, walk around for a short while to bring your pulse back to
normal.
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Have a protein shake after
each Kettlebell
workout to enhance recovery.
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Find a good massage
therapist and get a massage once every two weeks to enhance recovery.
The
Peripheral
Heart Action with Russian
Kettlebells workout is not easy, but I never said it would be. It is brutally
effective for conditioning and getting lean. I can promise you that the
results will be worth the effort.
David
Whitley, RKC is a Russian Kettlebell instructor, strength coach and massage
therapist in Nashville, TN. He
earned his RKC at the June 2003 certification and was an assistant
instructor at the April 2004 RKC. On
December fourth 2004 he became the first American-born man to achieve CMS
rank in Girevoy Sport. He
conducts Russian Kettlebell workshops and trains clients privately in the Nashville
area. He is also available for
online personalized training and phone consultation.
Contact him by email at irontamerdave@hotmail.com
and visit his website: www.irontamer.com.
